Starting now, in no meaningful order:

Our Toddler Just Learned The Essence Of Storytelling

The other day, B-Dub (recently turned two) was noodling around the edge of our bed with his teddy bear. He was making Teddy flop about on his belly like some kind of fish, smashing his face into the bed and making eating sounds — chomp chomp chomp.

And B-Dub said to everyone and no one:

“Seeds. Eat seeds.”

I said, “Teddy is eating seeds?”

“Yeah.”

“Does Teddy like eating seeds?” I asked, because I didn’t know teddy bears liked eating seeds and I’m always looking out for those imaginary pro-tips I can use to placate the wild wolverine tornado that is the toddler mind (“LOOK STOP CRYING TEDDY IS NOW EATING SEEDS SEE — CHOMPY CHOMPY CHOMPY — IT’S ALL FINE NOW HA HA STOP CRYING PLEASE”).

“Yeah.”

And he went on smashing Teddy into this trail of imaginary seeds.

But then B-Dub said, “Oh no! No more seeds.” And then Teddy kept flumping about, but gone were the chomp chomp chomp noises.

B-Dub went on like this for 30 more seconds, until finally he said, “Buy more seeds. No seeds. Buy seeds.” And then Teddy was once more about to chow down on some non-existent seeds.

My initial thought was, “Oh, great, yeah, problem-solving.” But then my immediate second thought was, “Oh, holy shit, he just told a story.” I mean, okay, it was a fucking shitty story. No one’s gonna be giving him the Booker Prize for that one. (OR ARE THEY?) You know, I don’t care about this bear. I’m not invested in whether or not the bear gets his seeds. I don’t even know that I buy the authenticity of a bear eating seeds, so, c’mon.

But seriously, he discovered the core of storytelling: a character you like (Teddy) wants something (seeds) but can’t have them (oh shit, no seeds) and goes on a quest to answer that interrupted desire (gotta go buy some seeds).

This was the first time he complicated the life of his protagonist (in this case, Teddy).

B-Dub just told his first story.

The Three C’s

The three C’s in a story are, I think: complication, conflict, and consequence.

I’d make the (admittedly somewhat arbitrary) separation between complication and conflict by saying that complication is when a character’s “quest” is made more difficult, and the conflict happens more at the character level — so, complications tend to be external, conflicts tend to be internal (though can be manifested and often solved externally).

A complication is John McClane having to run across broken glass.

But the conflict is John McClane versus Hans Gruber and his terrorists. Another conflict is John McClane “versus” his own wife — you might argue that Holly moving to LA while John remains in NYC offers the complication of distance which puts their marriage in conflict.

In this way, complications and conflicts can crash into and spawn one another: A complication can lead to a conflict which can create more complications. The complication of distance leads to the McClanes in conflict which leads to the complication of John having to leave his comfort zone (on a plane, to LA, to a high-rise tower of executives) which amplifies the conflict between him and Holly — he hopes this conflict will resolve in a change of state between the two of them but then their relationship and reunion is again complicated by Gruber and his terrorists which puts McClane in conflict  with them so he can save Holly, himself, and by proxy, their marriage, and a bevy of dogshit sequels.

(By the way, I choose Die Hard a lot in my examples because it’s an easy go-to example — almost everyone I know has seen it and it offers pretty great storytelling, so it works as a touchstone for most readers. And by the way, if you haven’t seen Die Hard, please let me strap you into this chair and superglue your eyelids to your hairline so that you MAY BE INDOCTRINATED YIPPIE KAY AY HYPNOFUCKER.)

The third C — consequence — describes the events that ensue from choices made in response to complications and conflicts. Consequences can be good or bad and can also spawn new conflicts and/or complications. Until the end of a story consequences are frequently both good and bad in equal measure. Some story endings see consequences lean strongly toward one or the other (win or fail) though again, you can do both — a Pyrrhic Victory where the victory is made at perhaps too high a cost. (I won’t lie: I love the Pyrrhic Victory ending.)

Not About “What Happens Next?”

Asking what happens next? is usually an invocation of external occurrence: “And then a fire breaks out. And then an army of rabid baboons appears. AND THEN ROBO-BEES AND SHIT BLIZZARDS AND EELVALANCHES.” That’s not to say you can’t have external events occur — any zombie story has that in the initial, “Oh, shit, look at all these fucking zombies.” That’s usually an inciting incident, though — a single external problem that complicates the lives of characters and throws them into conflict with one another.

The problem with external events is that they’re, well, external — they’re the equivalent of being handed a random card from the middle of the deck in a board game. “Go back three steps NO I DON’T KNOW WHY JUST DO IT.” In external events we get no character agency, no sense of ownership or entanglement, no function of character consequence.

More meaningful questions are: What do the characters do next? What is are the consequences? The goal isn’t to make something that’s event-driven.

I have in the past suggested that a plot is a the sequence of events as revealed to the audience, which remains true, to a point, but it might be better stated as (oh shit, complicated definition incoming): the actions of many characters hoping to gain what they desire and avoid what they fear and the complications and conflicts that result from those actions. A character-driven story rather than one driven by events.

The Little Story Is More Important Than The Bigger Story

At the end of the day, the big story is subservient to the little one. The Empire and Rebellion are just set dressing for the core conflict of Luke, Leia, and their father. Or the loyalty of Han. Or the illicit BDSM romance between Chewbacca and Chirpa, chieftain of the Ewoks. (Slashfic combo powers: CHIRPBACCA. Or CHIEF CHEWBY.)

Motive Is Everything

If you don’t understand why a character does something, you don’t understand the character.

The character doesn’t have to understand it. But you damn sure better.

Money? Love? Revenge? Approval of estranged father? High score on rip-off arcade game, Donkey Dong? Motivation is king. It moves the characters through the dangerous world you’ve put before them. It forces them to act when it’s easier not to. It gives them great agency.

Empathy, Not Sympathy (Or Sociopathy)

Never cross the line to sympathy. You’re not trying to preach of a character’s virtue. You’re not trying to convince us to like them. This isn’t church. This isn’t you knocking on doors asking if we’ve seen the Good Word and the Light of Steve the Accountant. It’s about understanding characters, not feeling for them. You should understand the hero. You should understand the villain. You should understand every character in between.

You’re not there to judge. No evil for evil’s sake. No good for goodness’ sake.

Everyone’s got a reason. Everyone’s the hero of their own tale.

Empathy. Don’t be distant. But don’t get too close, either.

Battling Convenience

I can smell convenience in a story like I can smell a hobo with a steamy load in his dungarees hiding in the rafters of my attic I KNOW YOU’RE THERE, JIMMY PATCHCOAT ahem sorry.

Convenience is when things are too easy. It’s when coincidence rules, when serendipity and sweet fortune conspire to grant the character a gift. Your story can demonstrate convenience, but convenience must come counterbalanced by equal (or worse) inconvenience — sure, the character can find the key to the padlock right there on the carpet but not before accidentally upending a coffee cup full of cockroaches onto her head.

Make things difficult. The path may seem easy — hey, look, there’s the finish line! so close! — but every step is fraught with the broken glass and caltrops of your choosing.

Care On The First Page

The goal and the challenge: how to make someone care from the very first page about a character and their predicament? (First, you gotta have a character and a predicament, one supposes: I’ve read stories where the first page is all setting or exposition, and that makes me just clench up and whizz a stream of napalm in my man-diapers.)

But seriously, how? How do you do it?

You’ve gotta give us something to hang our hats on. Some trait, some moment of history, some way to draw a line between the reader and the character. And then you’ve gotta instantly thrust this character that we care about into conflict — it’s like fishing. The character is the bait. The conflict is the hook. The reader swims along — gobblechomp —  and then you yank back on the rod (get your mind out of the gutter, weirdo) and you’ve got them.

The hell of it is, you don’t have long.

One page. Maaaaybe on the strength of writing or worldbuilding, one chapter.

Plot Is Line, Story Is Architecture

Plot and story are not the same.

The story is the apple. The plot is the arrow through it.

The story is the body. The plot is the skeleton in the meat.

The story is a whole building full of unfollowed hallways and unopened doors and secret rooms and people we only glimpse but never know, and the plot is the elevator up through that architecture, one floor after the next.

Imagine Your Audience Is Right In Front Of You

Tell a story to people. Real people. Standing in front of you.

It can be a story about anything. The hook-hand man. A dream you had. The time you had sex — sorry, “made love” — to that person off Craigslist who dressed like a bighorn sheep during the act. Hell, maybe it’s a comedy routine. Or even a single joke.

Tell the tale to one group, then the next, then the next.

See how they react. See where you might lose them.

Practice the telling. Sharpen it. Lose needless details. Amp up those parts to which they respond strongly. Now take all of that and see how it applies to a day’s writing — from a single sentence all the way to the whole script or game or novel. Imagine the reader there in front of you, reading. Imagine when they’ll put it down. Look for those places where they’ll be all, nah fuck it I got a frozen burrito with my name on it no I mean literally I wrote my name on it in Sharpie. Look for the parts where they’re pumping their fists and clenching their rosebuds and saying fuck yeah this is what I’m talking about, I can eat that stupid fucking burrito later.

Picture them right there.

Right here.

And tell the story to them as if you might lose them at any moment.

The day is done.

Under the Empyean Sky — a book that took me two months to write and another year to edit — is now out and in the world. And it’s doing very well, as I understand —

And that is thanks to you.

So, thanks.

High-five each and every one of you.

Writing books is weird. Getting ’em published is even weirder.

So it’s nice to have readers to join me on this really weird journey.

I’ll politely note that the book remains on sale at Amazon ($3.99 for Kindle, under $11 for hardcover). Regardless, I appreciate you checking this book out and telling folks and I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU ALL AND RUB MY BEARD MUSK UPON YOUR BROW. Ahem.

To celebrate the release of Under the Empyrean Sky, I’m gonna just leave this post here today for you to ask me anything you want. Ask me about the book. About young adult fiction. About my other books or my future books or whiskey preferences or toddler-wrangling techniques.

Anything.

Anything at all.

I’ll swing by here around noon EST and answer the first volley.

Then I’ll pop by come evening and answer more.

BECAUSE I’M FUNKY LIKE THAT.

Further! I’ll toss some swag and free books and such to my favorite five questions.

What kind of swag? Hell, I dunno. FREE STUFF. Mmmm. Free.

I am very excited and also very nervous about this book release (I got seven other books out now with publishers and each time I still get that “I might vomit up a cloud of nervous moths at any moment” feeling on release day). I am maybe a leetle teeny weeny bit more nervous this time because this book was a riskier story for me. It’s young adult, more worldbuildy, more sci-fi-flavored, and so forth. Plus it’s got stuff about sons and fathers, about food and agriculture and my memories of farm-life. It tries to be exciting and yet say something at the same time — yet also say something without being preachy about it and aaaaaaah *head asplodes*

What I’m saying is:

It was a tricky book to write and I hope it paid off.

And so, my plea: I only get to keep doing this if you tell folks and those folks maybe check out the book? I live and die by the grace of goodly readers such as yourselves — and, more to the point, this website lives or dies in much the same way. My writing helps fund this website (and monthly costs are no longer cheap, sadly), and so it’s folks buying my books and talking about those books that keeps this whole set of plates spinning.

So, again:

Check out the book.

Tell folks.

If you’re so inclined to leave a review somewhere: yay.

I appreciate it.

This website appreciates it.

My two-year-old appreciates it.

High-five to each and every one of you.

Now ask me some questions, willya?

Fear the Corn. And everything that floats above it.

Under the Empyrean Sky is now out. Purchase the book at:

Amazon / B&N / Indiebound / Add on Goodreads

If you like this site and want to buy me tacos keep my son in diapers, please tell folks!

The Official Description

Corn is king in the Heartland, and Cael McAvoy has had enough of it. It’s the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow — and the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it. As captain of the Big Sky Scavengers, Cael and his crew sail their rickety ship over the corn day after day, scavenging for valuables, trying to earn much-needed ace notes for their families. But Cael’s tired of surviving life on the ground while the Empyrean elite drift by above in their extravagant sky flotillas. He’s sick of the mayor’s son besting Cael’s crew in the scavenging game. And he’s worried about losing Gwennie — his first mate and the love of his life — forever when their government-chosen spouses are revealed. But most of all, Cael is angry — angry that their lot in life will never get better and that his father doesn’t seem upset about any of it. Cael’s ready to make his own luck . . . even if it means bringing down the wrath of the Empyrean elite and changing life in the Heartland forever.

What People Are Saying

Kirkus:

“A chilling post-apocalyptic adventure set on an Earth devastated by poor agricultural practices. For teenager Cael, a good day might be killing a shuck rat for dinner and sailing a land-boat above ultra-engineered cornfields to scavenge parts from a wrecked motorvator. A bad day is watching the girl you love become Obligated to your archrival. Welcome to the Empyrean world, where the haves hover above ruined Earth in luxurious flotillas and the have-nots toil below in the Heartland, told whom to marry and what to grow—those “endless…everything” fields of corn that threaten to swallow towns and must be beaten back with “Queeny’s Quietdown,” an ominous herbicide. It’s all just “[l]ife in the Heartland,” resigned citizens say of violent “piss-blizzard” pollen storms, stillborn babies and the tumors that grow like strange fruit on their bodies. When Cael and his friends discover a trail of precious, prohibited vegetables growing deep in the corn, they stumble on a secret that may save them—or get them killed. Wendig offers vivid glimpses of authentic teen emotion and snappy, profanity-laced dialogue set in a grim-yet-plausible wrecked world. With last pages that offer more late-breaking revelation than resolution, this story’s dangling threads will no doubt entice readers to reach for the next book in the Heartland Trilogy. A thoroughly imagined environmental nightmare with taut pacing and compelling characters that will leave readers eager for more.”

Booklist:

“The first book in Wendig’s Heartland trilogy sets the stage. Flotillas, peopled by the wealthy Empyreans, float above the Heartland, allowing the lowly Heartlanders to grow only Hiram’s Golden Prolific corn. This monstrous crop has taken over everything, leaving deformed, malnourished farmers and their families to survive on the government’s stingy handouts. [Teenager] Cael and his longtime enemy Boyland and their crews are constantly pitted against one another, striving to earn the title of best scavengers. When Cael discovers an amazing row of real garden fruits and vegetables, he unearths not only a possible death sentence for him and his friends but also torture for his family and other Heartlander citizens. It’s a tense dystopian tale made more strange and terrifying by its present-day implications. The Heartland teens understand that they are pawns in the hands of the powerful, fed an insidious combination of hope and coercion to keep them all under Empyrean control. Escape only brings retribution to their families and friends. Cael has two more books to conquer this perversity, and it will be interesting to see how he does it.”

Libba Bray, Author of The Diviners and Going Bovine:

“Wendig brilliantly tackles the big stuff—class, economics, identity, love, and social change—in a fast-paced tale that never once loses its grip on pure storytelling excitement. Well-played, Wendig. Well-played.”

John Hornor Jacobs, Author of The Twelve-Fingered Boy and Southern Gods:

“Under the Empyrean Sky is like a super-charged, genetically modified hybrid of The Grapes of Wrath and Star Wars. Wendig delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a future agri-dystopia. Fascinating world building, engaging and deep characters, smooth, electric prose.”

Tom Pollock, Author of The City’s Son and The Glass Republic:

“A lunatic, gene-spliced, biofueled thriller. Wendig’s story flies faster and slicker than his teen crews’ hover racers. Fear the corn.”

Joelle Charbonneau, Author of The Testing:

“Under the Empyrean Sky is an imaginative, page-turning adventure that will delight science fiction fans and have them impatiently waiting for the next installment.”

Why I Think You Might Like It

Because it contains hopefully awesome things like: hobos, plant-human hybrids, hover-boats, secret gardens, food politics, naughty little jabs at Monsanto, literally bloodthirsty corn, fake profanity (“Lord and Lady!” “Jeezum Crow!” “King Hell!”), real profanity (“piss-blizzards!” “shit-biscuits!”), robotic farm equipment, class warfare, slingshots, forced marriages, drunken mayors, broken hearts, love quadrangles, all packed in the sunniest agricultural dustbowl dystopia you ever did see.

Because the second in the series, Blightborn, is twice as big and twice as crazy.

Because you’re curious just how I might handle a YA book and audience.

Because it’s cornpunk, and you wanna know what that means.

Because dang, that’s a pretty cover.

What Other Reviewers Have Said:

52 Reviews says: “delivers on all levels with a cast of rich characters, a setting that seems limitless in possibility, a message that rides confidently beneath the current of the story and a real understanding of what it is to stand between being a child and an adult, complete with the requisite indecision and ugliness of youth. There’s action, adventure, and even a bit of romance in this tale and I’m looking forward to the next installment in the Heartland Trilogy. And I’ve learned not to scoff at the plans of the incredibly versatile Chuck Wendig.”

Bibliosanctum says: “I had to wonder, Is he going to be dialing it back for this? My guess was that he would have to, for a YA novel. And if that’s the case, how much? Is this still going to read like a book by the Chuck Wendig I know and love? The answer, thankfully, was yes. The story here is definitely all Wendig, but just imagine it tweaked a bit around the edges to make it more appealing to the YA reading audience.”

All About Urban Fantasy says: “With YA fiction I often find myself rolling my eyes at the idealized teenage life the authors portray in the books. When I was sixteen I cursed, did stupid things and generally acted like someone who was too old to be a child and too young to be an adult. In UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY Wendig does a fantastic job of portraying his teenage characters as, well, teenagers. They swear, talk about (and have) sex and make the kind of rash decisions that you probably would have made as a teenager.”

Books From Emma says: “I believe this may be the next big alternative dystopia series to hit the shelves in the next couple years. I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment.”

Bandelier Girl Reads Everything says: “Hunger Games meets the Heartland: Loved the unique take on the dystopian future – the “Heartland” is now a seething mass of corn crossed with kudzu, and the land is too toxic to grow anything else. The rich are all in their flotillas in the sky as the people in the Heartland are left to scavenge for survival. Tumors abound, the pollen storms are poisonous and young couples become “Obligated” to each other when they turn 18. Cael, our hero, and his friends and family struggle under this scenario, getting by until things get nasty.  The first in a trilogy – this book set up the characters, their world and the plot, and got me so hooked that I was jonsing for the second book as I reached the ending of this first one. Really interesting, fast paced, well written – fun YA read!”

Pabkins at My Shelf Confessions says: “The premise is crazy interesting, I could totally picture this as being some whacked out American future because it takes place in ‘The Heartland.’”

The Geek Girl Project says: “I’m glad I decided to go ahead and read it because it was one of the most imaginative, enjoyable books I’ve read in some time.”

Exploring All Genres says: “I will be eagerly waiting for the next book to come out so I can see just what happens next.”

Leanne from Literary Excursion says: “It throws you right into the mix of things, into the whirlwind that is the life of teens. They use profanity, are prone to explosive emotions (anger, lust, hatred, jealousy, betrayal, love), go against society’s wishes, and are part of intimate encounters. They face real issues, that are relatable to teens today — even if those teens are (arguably) not living in a dystopian society. While the profanity may seem excessive at times, it is not, and tapers off more as the story progresses. There is also a huge element of hilarity in the words the teens of the Heartlands choose… ones unfamiliar to us in their pairings, but that get their meaning across loud and clear. I lost track of the times I found myself laughing at insults hurled from Cael and the other characters, from the combination of ridiculous phrases and the vehemency with which they were said. Some of you may think of it as my adolescent traits showing through, but the Heartlanders’ profanity is just the right type of fodder for my funny bone.”

Last week, we crowdsourced your favorite space opera.

And this week, because I’m totally shameless (seriously, the Martians destroyed my Shame Gland in the Second Mars-America Temporal Freedom War of 2018), I feel like we should talk about your favorite dystopian reads.

From adult (Handmaid’s Tale!) to young adult (Hunger Games!).

So: your top three dystopian reads.

Drop ’em in the comments. Let’s make some recommendations.

(And I might just have my own dystopian tale coming out tomorrow, hey, huh, weird.)

*dons rubber newscaster mask*

*stands behind a news desk made from the bones of my enemies*

It’s time for a newstastic roundup. Let’s see, where to begin?

First, hey, if you’re going to Lonestarcon / Worldcon or are a supporting member, you have one more week to vote (click here to do so). I’ll just casually nudge you — tickle tickle — to remind you that I am in some very good company in that I am nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Ahem. Wink wink. *does an erratic tap dance*

Next up: in advance of next week’s release of Under the Empyrean Sky, I stop by Tor.com to answer their Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe. There you can learn my secret not-so-shameful shame, my secret nickname, and other wondrously magical trivial — er, trivia! — tidbits about me. (Pro-tip: anybody who calls me “Chazz” gets facemurdered.)

Oh! Speaking of Under the Empyrean Sky… it’s totally out next week! AAAAAAAAAH. Ahem. Anyway! It’s still up for pre-order at a very low, very cozy prize. Only $3.99 for the Kindle edition, and $10.79 for the hardcover edition. I don’t suspect those prices will remain after it goes on sale next Tuesday, but what the hell do I know? Check it out here. (Just, umm, ignore those nasty reviews where people are cranky at me for being all vulgar and sexy and stuff.)

Also: I stop by Publishers Weekly radio this week (hosted by publishing icon Rose Fox) and talk about urban fantasy and writing advice. Go listen!

What next? Ah! Yes. I’ll be at the Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library on Saturday, September 21st from 3pm – 5pm talking about writing and books and signing books and performing heretical rituals to forbidden gods. Details on the event –> here.

Finally! My novel Bait Dog (featuring cracked Southern belle teenage detective-slash-vigilante Atlanta Burns — think Veronica Mars on Adderall) has dropped in price — right now it’s at $2.99 for the Kindle edition riiiiiiight here. Note that with this novel you also get the first Atlanta Burns story, Shotgun Gravy, included in the e-book.

And that’s that.

*disappears in a puff of eye-stinging Axe body spray*